Firstly, in the last post when thinking about responsive design, my processes moved towards absolutism as the error often occurs. The mistake comes from the tendency to insist on the modern outlet, the grand goal of all goals. Unknowingly I was wandering into that territory. I want to add that it’s an expansion of design not a removal of control from the designer. The shift into the design of display and in this post I thought to write about the design of depth exploration and expecting technological shift.

Things don’t move ahead by intention, or what we might consider the intention of the creators of new media. The steps are just that; one thing follows the last but it is enmeshed in the industry which is itself not entirely encapsulated. Needing to protect its essential state of affairs each field must be dutiful to its own requirements for advancement. Yet each field of human endeavour leans on the others around them. Take, for example, the pertinent relationship between computer technology and new media. It isn’t one way or another and that unintentional progress I mentioned comes from many failed attempts, many more than succeed, but they are a non-lineal tandem and in 3D.

The successful changes are those adopted and each supports and utilises the successes around them. The 3D design dive is approaching and I wonder will it surpass 2D design layouts in digital screens. Hinted movement and z-index is what digital design has over print after all. This is my key point here: the screen based digital designers have a role to play in the direction of the next displays. As the designs become immersive what will happen to the display methods? Glasses, head sets, spinal jacks, who knows what sf is next. It won’t be the first sf projection to find it’s way to the masses. But it will be decided by them. The consumers, I am yet to inject into this equations, are the ones deciding on the success and the technologists are influencing the rate and nuance of development.

To what goals intangibly is the development heading, is all I can think to ask at a time when anything will happen. Necessity may stop all of this into tangible goals like feeding ourselves or migrating to cooler weather more quickly than expected – but that is the real sf, the dark sf. It’s beyond the shiny sparkling light displays and crisp keyboard plastics of today. I am imagining what the depth of the future design will be – and putting it to words makes me tired, tired of the same dreams of machinic mediation being hijacked by commerce driven illusion.